Page 3 - SeniorsToday May20
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Publisher’s Note
Unfulfilled Desires,
Shattered Dreams
This issue is about Guru Dutt, a film-maker Finally, we focus on the story of the mass
far ahead of his time – sensitive, intense human migration. The Mother of all Road
and romantic all at once. The story of Guru Shows, as we call it. Lakhs and lakhs of
Dutt, as told by his sister Lalitha Lajmi, is workers from across India being displaced
one of sadness and angst as portrayed in his from their jobs, homes and the destinies
movies. Unfulfilled desire, sexual longing they sought to create for themselves. This is
is a recurrent theme in his movies – from cruelty and human suffering at its worst. And
Chaudhavin ka Chand, where the hero also great determination to get home. One
marries the wrong woman to Sahib Biwi aur emotion makes them walk all the way home
Ghulam, where the wife is unable to fulfil her irrespective of the distance, the blazing sun
sexual desire, to Aaj sajan mohe ang laga lo, and hunger on the way. And that emotion is to
again a song of unfulfilled desire from the film reach their family – parents, wife and children.
Pyaasa. Yet, Guru Dutt could be a romantic, But what happens after they get home? What
as he was in Kabhi aar kabhi paar or Babuji kind of darkness will engulf them? For these
dheere chalna or Jaane kya tune kahi or even people, this is an earthquake, a tsunami and
Bhawra bada nadaan hai. Guru Dutt produced a volcanic eruption all at once. For many,
some outstanding movies; he was a genius, their lives have been destroyed forever. So
and as his sister puts it: “He didn’t commit has India’s image of being a superpower… the
suicide, but life walked out on him.” world has seen the real India.
We also have a first-person account by a As I was writing on what the migrants have
59-year-old lady sharing her trauma on being been going through, I couldn’t help humming
deserted by her husband. Struggling to find Guru Dutt’s immortal song: Jinhe naaz hai
a mechanism to cope with the situation. It’s a Hind par, woh kahaan hain? Kahaan hain,
true story, of a husband falling in love with his indeed!
wife’s best friend. Sad, but entirely true.
Urvi Piramal writes on the animal migration
in the Masai Mara, where multitudes of
wildebeest and other animals cross the Mara
river to greener pastures – a journey fraught
with danger. Urvi is a wildlife enthusiast and
an amazing photographer as is obvious from Vickram Sethi
the pictures she has captured. Publisher and Editor-in-Chief
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #11 | MAY 2020 3
